On May 4th, we should pause to remember the price of freedom, paid in blood by patriots – like the young people who died at Kent State.

On this day 42 years ago at Kent State University, Ohio National Guardsmen fired 67 shots into a group of students protesting the American invasion of Cambodia — killing four students and wounding nine others, one of whom was permanently paralyzed.

The small college town of Kent is about 40 miles southeast of Cleveland, where on Monday, May 4, 1970 I was an elementary school student at St. Rocco’s School. The shooting on the Kent State campus began at 12:24 pm – and by the time we were getting out of school at 3:00 pm, the news had reached Cleveland. But the news was by word of mouth when I first heard it. And it was wrong.

The first thing I heard when I walked out of school along with my 6th grade classmates was that “some hippies had shot some National Guardsmen.”

That’s what I heard from one of the parents waiting to pick up their kids.

When we got home and turned on our black and white television sets, Walter Cronkite set us straight.

Later, Crosby, Still, Nash & Young captured the moment, the sorrow, the sacrifice — and the defiance.

“Ohio”

Written by Neil Young

Tin soldiers and Nixon’s coming,We’re finally on our own.This summer I hear the drumming,Four dead in Ohio.Gotta get down to itSoldiers are gunning us downShould have been done long ago.What if you knew herAnd found her dead on the groundHow can you run when you know?Tin soldiers and Nixon’s coming,We’re finally on our own.This summer I hear the drumming,Four dead in Ohio.Four dead in OhioFour dead in Ohio.

One response to “A Childhood Memory of Kent State, May 4, 1970.”

Now 44 years ago, this event had a profound effect on me and the rest of my life. It made me bitter and alienated me from my country, my government and my school for a long time. A decade ago I found my notebook from 7th grade, and it was plastered with the news of Kent State. I can get angry about this all over again.
Good for Neil Young.